Ok this one is funny
Got the laptop for repair. Geek squad told them the hard drive is dead. First thing I notice is the battery is no good and the clock always resets. So I changed the bios battery which fixed the time issue. The main battery is still no good, so its plugged in to the wall.
So I load it up, log into one of the user accounts. Its not admin, so I create one (gotta love xp. Not an admin but I can make one!). At this point the computer has been on 20 minutes, signed itsself onto wireless, etc. I reboot and during the xp load screen it powers off. Like u pulled the plug, instant death.
I push power and it comes right back on. Same thing. So I time it and its exactly 40 seconds into boot everytime.
So I try safemode, 20 seconds ir reboots instead of powering off. Same thing 8 times.
And loading into bios it will run forever.
So its not a heat issue. It COULD be a hard drive but since when does a hard drive cause an instant power off?